King Beast (1)

After meeting with Colonel Geri's adjutant and obtaining the related information on the roaming King beast, John and Alfred had a sumptuous meal before setting off to sort out the vandalizing beast.

...

The Lamborghini Huracan STO flew for 300 kilometres to the southwest of Elincia before descending at the entrance to a valley nestled between two mountains.

Two hundred or so meters away, Alfred could see close to a hundred individuals setting up a blockade into the valley. From the looks of it, they all seemed to be high-level martial artists, or possibly members of the national army judging by the powerful and oppressive aura they gave off which they weren't even trying to hide.

John alighted from the vehicle and lit up a cigar before making his way into the blockade.

A few soldiers gave a salute before allowing him to enter the command center for a briefing.

The command center was a portable structure designed with nanotechnology for emergency field operations. The base models come equipped with the standard necessities like office supplies and 50 km surveillance equipment. Naturally, as a relatively low-end product that most army and mercenary teams use, the degree of versatility would be at its lowest.

But without a doubt, its greatest feature was its ability to collapse into a palm-size cube when on the go.

John swaggered into the small 6-square-meter office in the heart of the command center only to see a very haggard Geri Zekes.

"Sigh... if you had come any later, I doubt we could hold it off any longer." Said a haggard-looking man in his forties the moment he saw John.

"Is it that serious?" John asked.

"Yes!" Colonel Geri replied tiredly.

"The damn beast has been ambushing everyone it sees in the surrounding 600km range. On top of that, it's only a single step away from the Calamity level, it can break through at any time! If not for the emergency mission I posted at the adventurers guild, our blockade would have been toppled two days ago." Geri added.

"Any idea where it came from?" John asked while puffing out double dragons.

"It suddenly appeared in the depths of the Taliwa mountain range. An entire three mercenary teams had disappeared before the presence of a King beast was recognized and reported." Geri shrugged.

"Isn't this the third one in two years?" John frowned then asked "how can King beasts just randomly appear so close to a city? Were there any mistakes with surveillance?"

"No." Geri shook his head.

"We checked the situation and confirmed that the moment the first mercenary team lost contact through their com-link, was merely 3 minutes after the first energy reading was spotted." Geri continued, "it's the same as the two cases last year."

John nodded in understanding, but he couldn't help feeling perplexed by the situation.

Once could be called a mistake.

Twice would be negligence.

But three times?

Something else was clearly afoot.

One should know that the Taliwa mountain range only covered a distance of 1,300km from northeast to southwest, and had a span of 820km from east to west. While Elincia was merely 300km from the entrance into the mountain range, but a surveillance system which can monitor a range of 3,000km failed to detect such a beast?

Humans and beasts both use Origin Qi to temper their bodies and as an energy source, but the signatures of beasts and humans are fundamentally different. It's this difference that was seized and used by scientists thousands of years ago to invent equipment to monitor beasts at or above the King realm from thousands of kilometres away. So to fail so many times consecutively in two years was cause for concern.

Of course, nothing is absolute. It wouldn't be strange for stealth units to bypass such a system, since such precedents already exist. But the three cases in question did not include beasts with such expertise. And that's the issue they were facing currently.

"Well..."

John took a drag of his cigar.

"Since I am already here, I'll take care of it. It's my duty after all," he puffed then continued. "But... after you finish the investigation, I request you send the entire carcass to my place" John scratched his temples.

"Hmm..."

Geri sized up John.

Such a request was quite strange since it didn't follow protocol. Usually, after strange cases like these, the carcass would be dissected and scrutinized for any clue to solve the mystery.

"... I promised my sister-in-law the body of a King beast to further her occupation..." John explained.

"..."

Geri sighed.

"You're making it hard for me man" he shook his head.

"I know" John nodded. "But it's hard for me too. Where else can I go find King beasts on our continent? The Zurich and Mernard mountain ranges are too dangerous even for the likes of me, so I can only take what's already at hand" he shrugged.

"That's true" Geri admitted. "Well, if it's the very same as the last two cases, it's likely we won't find anything anyway. So I don't see why not."

"Thanks."

"No worries. It's your kill anyway" Geri laughed.

"Hurry up and go! The faster you get rid of that thing, the faster we can get the fuck out of here" Geri scowled.

"Haha, alright alright" John laughed. "Let me introduce you to my kid, the brat's lazy so I want him to see his old man in action."

"Ah..." Geri nodded in understanding.

...

Alfred felt bored and hopped out of the vehicle.

He couldn't help smacking his lips after taking in his surroundings. The scenery was quite magnificent, the air was refreshing, and the ankle-high grass was a vibrant green with a scent so intoxicating that he couldn't help but smile in satisfaction.

'Compared to the cities on earth, this place is a million times better.'

He stooped down and grabbed a handful of grass before sniffing it delightedly.

"Alfred!"

He turned and saw John waving him over with a tired-looking man in a black and shiny metallic combat suit behind him.

"Meet your uncle, Geri" John introduced.

"Hello, uncle!" Alfred greeted.

"Hehe. Good kid!" Geri laughed and rubbed Alfred's head.

"Since it's our first meeting, let me give you a meeting gift."

Geri flipped his hand and pulled out a pendant.

"It's not much, but it should help in your training," he said while handing the pendant to Alfred.

Alfred looked at John, seeking his approval.

"Go ahead, it's very rare that this Scrooge will gift away something" John laughed.

"Thanks, uncle" Alfred received the pendant while checking its stats.